At
eleven years old Craig Harrison went door-to-door in Berkeley selling
Used Jokes. He has sold everything from jewelry to joke-books to
biscuits-in-a-basket since. As a professional speaker and founder of
Expressions of Excellence!™, Craig deploys "The Tao of Networking" to help
others succeed. Whether helping professionals craft elevator speeches,
or using storytelling to sell or take the chill out of cold calls,
clients including Hilton Hotels, SGMP, MPI and NACE, all excel. He is
the author of five books and three tips booklets. His elevator speeches
booklet has even inspired a week’s worth of panels in the comic strip
Sally Forth

Michelle Millar Ph.D., , Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco

Michelle is an Assistant Professor
in the Department of Hospitality Management at the University of San Francisco.
Her research areas include consumer behavior, in particular the wants and
desires of travelers when selecting accommodations or tourism destinations, and
why they make the decisions they do.
Michelle is also interested in how hotels relate to and work within the
environment, and how we can make companies more environmentally friendly. Her research has been published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and
Management, and Journal of
Hospitality and Tourism Education.
She has also presented her research at hospitality conferences
throughout the world, and is a contributing writer for the Hotel Business
Review.

Panel Discussion - To Use Social Media or Not, That is the Question

J.P. Allen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of San Francisco

J.P. Allen is an Associate Professor of
Information Systems at the School of Management, University of San
Francisco. J.P. studies how digital technology is transforming business,
particularly in the areas of online/internet business and open
technology. He's currently the web editor for the International
Journal of Electronic Commerce, and an editorial board member of the Journal
of Information Technology. J.P. grew up flying on his parents' Saudi
Arabian Airlines employee passes, and recently completed a 14-month, 20-nation
round-the-world trip with only carry-on luggage.

Lucas
Schumacher currently serves as Online Marketing Manager at The Fairmont
San Francisco & Fairmont Newport Beach. In addition to managing
paid and organic search marketing efforts, he is also responsible for
social media marketing. This includes strategy and execution of social
media efforts. He earned his MBA in Marketing from University of San Francisco.

Michelle Heston currently serves as the Regional
Director of Public Relations for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. In this role
she oversees the marketing communication and public relations efforts for eight
luxury holdings in the western US and Hawaii. In addition to media
outreach, advertising and brand communication activities, she is responsible
for exploring, cultivating and leveraging cross marketing relationships for the
brand. She proudly spearheads Fairmont's “green” marketing
efforts.

She has earned an MBA and regularly
lectures in the areas of marketing, public relations, advertising
and social media.

As the Founding Partner of Bacchus Management Group, Tim
Stannard oversees a collection of thriving restaurants, including the
Michelin-starred restaurants Spruce in San Francisco and The Village Pub in
Woodside; Café des Amis in San Francisco; Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo
Alto, and four Pizza Antica locations (Lafayette, Mill Valley, San Jose, Santa
Monica). In 2008, he launched Roast Coffee Company, an artisanal coffee roasting
company offering single origin and estate coffee beans from around the globe. .

A long-time proponent of the local food movement, Stannard’s
restaurants take their food philosophy one step further through a partnership
with SMIP Ranch, located in the hills above Woodside. Approximately 80 percent
of Bacchus’ restaurant produce comes directly from five acres of the ranch’s
land, all of which is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides,
herbicides, or fertilizers.

Well before social
media was coined, Dan Rosenbaum was in charge of many social media pages for
brands in the music, TV and Movie industries. Since moving to San Francisco
over a year ago, Dan has been working for San Francisco Travel as the Manager of Visitor Experience Marketing. In this role he is in charge of the San Francisco
Facebook page and the OnlyInSF Twitter page, which hopefully many of you are
following. On the weekends, you can find Dan exploring all of San Francisco on
his road bike or checking out many of the great restaurants, bars and public
spaces that make up the city.

Andrew Freeman leads a talented team of creative
professionals at Andrew Freeman & Co., a high-energy hospitality consulting
agency with offices in San Francisco and New York. Prior to opening his
consultancy in 2005, he worked at legendary New York venues, including Windows
on the World, where he was Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing,
and the Russian Tea Room, where he opened the Cabaret. He spent six years as Vice President of Public Relations for the Rainbow Room, working with restaurant
legend Joe Baum. Andrew left New York to become Director of Restaurant Marketing for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants in San Francisco. Promoted to Vice President of Public Relations and Strategic Partnerships, he launched more than
40 hotels and restaurants as well as the global brand during his 10 years
there. Now, with his own company, Andrew is proud to have had the opportunity
to work with: Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, David Burke Restaurants, the
Golden Gate Restaurant Association/SF Chefs, the French Culinary Institute,
Marriott Hotels International, Wente Vineyards, the Palm Restaurant Group,
Domaine Chandon, Magnolia Bakery and top hotels and restaurants around the
country. Andrew was selected in 2010 by Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association
International as one of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and
Marketing.

Panel Discussion: Social Media and Hospitality: BFFs?

Sun-Young Park, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco

Sun-Young Park is an Assistant Professor at the School of
Management of University of San Francisco. She conducts research and teaches
courses on sustainable business models and strategic service management
and marketing.

She taught at University of Hawaii at Manoa and Texas
A&M University. While pursuing her Ph.D., she produced reports that
evaluated the Texas State agencies' marketing programs including tourism
marketing. She was a management consultant at a multinational firm, working
with various firms and national government agencies in Asia Pacific and the
U.S. on strategy, knowledge management, and national/regional tourism
destination marketing.

Mr. Abrams served as the President and CEO of the California
Hotel & Lodging Association from January 1, 1991, through December 31,
2008. Prior to that, he was engaged in
the private practice of law in San Francisco for 20 years, and he was legal
counsel to the Association for much of that time.

He has also represented numerous owners and operators of
hotels, inns, and other lodging establishments of all types on a wide variety
of legal, governmental, and operational issues.
He is the author of the book Laws
Pertaining to the California Innkeeper (3rd rev. ed., 2002),
which is published by the California Hotel & Lodging Association.

Richard D. Waters (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco,
where he teaches marketing and public relations, fundraising, and nonprofit
organization management. His research interests include relationship management
between organizations and stakeholders and the use of Web 2.0 technologies by
nonprofit organizations. He is a former fundraising practitioner and current consultant to Fortune 500 and Philanthropy 400 organizations
throughout the United States. In addition to serving on the editorial board of
four strategic communication research journals, he is the Associate Editor of
Case Studies in Strategic Communication. He has published more than 45
research articles and book chapters on nonprofit management and public
relations topics.

Rebecca is the Head
of Product at BranchOut, the largest professional network on Facebook. At
BranchOut, Rebecca leads both the Facebook consumer product, as well as all
enterprise offerings, including RecruiterConnect, CareerConnect, and Social
Jobs. She brings recruiting, HR, sales, and Facebook platform experience to the
product and team. She also manages the team's HR and recruiting efforts.
Prior to joining BranchOut, Rebecca worked as a Product Manager for
Disney Interactive Media Group, as an HR Business Partner for Playdom, and as a
headhunter for a number of VCs, private equity firms, and investment banks in
San Francisco. She studied and earned her degree from Boston University
and the University of California - Berkeley, where she was a member of a two
time national championship winning women's crew team.

The Principal and founder of HR Futures®, Dr.
Stephen McElfresh, was previously the President and CEO of Saratoga Institute.
Through HR Futures, Dr. McElfresh provides executive coaching, strategy
planning, HR programs and keynote presentations to executive, industry and
professional groups. He is certified by SHRM as a Senior Human Resource
Professional (SPHR), was a charter member of the SHRM national panel for Human
Capital Measurement and HR Metrics, and is a member of the Investor Metrics
Workgroup of SHRM.

Dr. McElfresh has taught at the Boston College School of
Management and the University of Massachusetts and has served on the Boards of
Directors or Advisory Boards of Palo Alto University, Forensic Expert Witness
Association, and the Bay Area Organizational Development Network. Dr. McElfresh
earned a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from Boston College and a JD from
the Santa Clara University School of Law.